Students are paying over $200 for their school laptops! Why is that? That’s because some students are accidentally breaking their laptops and laptop chargers. But how many laptops have been broken exactly?

“Only one this year so far,” said Tech Director Roger Warne. Last year was a different story, ending last school year with approximately 16 broken laptops, according to Warne. The damages caused to the laptops vary in degree and with some interesting stories on how the damages were caused. Many students were reported to have listened to music and then left their earbuds on the keyboard of their laptop and then closing it. This caused the screen to shatter into a spiderweb costing $200 if it was their first offense.

According to the “Atlantic Community Schools 1:1 Student Laptop Handbook”, students get three offenses for breaking their laptop. If the damage to their laptop is under $500 then the first time is 35% of the cost, second time is 70% of the cost, and the third offense is 100% of the cost. If the damages are over $500 then the student has to pay for the entire cost.

So hopefully the next time you think about putting your laptop in an unsafe place, you’ll think twice about it. And the next time you listen to music, know where your earbuds are!